I Don’t Care About Rhaenyra and Alicent, Rhaenys Proved She Should’ve Been the Queen

It’s finally time for House of the Dragon ’s fans to shed tears after several episodes of tense anticipation, yet it still hit hard even the most prepared ones.

The second season’s episode 4 titled The Red Dragon and the Gold saw a major defeat of both the Greens and the Blacks, yet no one really cared about Aegon when it came to coping with the fact that the entire series’ best character (I’m definitely not the only one to think so) is now gone.

Though it surely took a while to process Rhaenys’s death and surmise how exactly it will play out for the Blacks in the next episode, it’s still pretty clear to me that the character’s sacrifice for Rhaenyra’s sake wasn’t meaningless like many other fans claim.

What's even more, that actually once again proves that the Queen Who Never Was had in fact much more ambitions as a female leader than Rhaenyra and Alicent combined.

For those who have been closely following House of the Dragon ever since its release back in 2022 or just have been rooting for the Blacks all this time it’s always been pretty obvious that Rhaenys had much more potential as a ruler — and much more will to do whatever it takes for proving her point right.

The character’s unexpected decision to sneak out of the castle to go fight with the Greens on her own isn’t any kind of accident since Rhaenys happens to be the most experienced dragon rider, backed by the Blacks’ strongest dragon Meleys.

Seeing her biggest rival falling down after Aemond’s gigantic dragon Vhagar severely damages Sunfyre’s wing, Rhaenys might have had a quick thought of going back home until she herself or Meleys are wounded as well, but that would mean that she’d lose a unique opportunity to bring down Vhagar too.

Known as most likely the biggest and strongest dragon that ever existed, let alone compared to other fantastic creatures ridden by the Blacks and the Greens, Vhagar is undoubtedly the latter ones’ number one priority and number one war tool which Rhaenys had to try to kill anyway, even if it meant her own death after all.

This comes as an exact reason why Rhaenys eventually turns back instead of flying back home — she knows that her chances against Aemond and Vhagar are incredibly low, yet she would surely never forgive herself for not trying to beat the Blacks’ biggest nightmare.

Additionally, her return would be perceived as a signal that Rook’s Rest would be taken by the Greens depriving the Blacks of an access to the mainland. That all combined does force Rhaenys to come up with a plan to sacrifice herself in case it’s needed and actually makes her a much better fit as the Realm’s Protector than Rhaenyra.

Though her death will have its own major consequences for the Blacks and all the tension among them, she’s definitely worthy of being claimed a real queen, and I couldn’t agree more.